WESTERN CONSTRUCTION CONSIDERED MURDEROUS
SACRED SPACE AND SACRED BUILDINGS . THE RICH AFRICAN SPIRITUAL TRADITION This is a condensed article by Anthony Ashworth, architect and feng shui consultant lives in Australia, with the collaboration of Cathryn McNaughton (sea "The team"). The article presents the traditions of the Zulu culture of which a number of parallels can be traced with other civilisations. The majority of the ideas and concepts which are developed here were transmitted directly to Anthony Ashworth and Cathryn McNaughton whilst they were sitting at the feet of the African Master, spiritual head of the Zulu people and holder of the stories of the African peoples, Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa. Credo has all the traits of a great master, unassuming and humble, polite to a word, totally centred and a profoundly wonderful wit. Credo is an African equal to the Dali Lama, the Pope or a great Yogic Swami.
DOGOTO : TO HEAL WITHOUT MEDECINE Having studied a number of spiritual traditions over the years and having spent a week with Credo and a number of other African spiritual healers and African Sangoma, as they are titled, we can say with some authority that the spiritual traditions of Africa are equally rich and meaning full, if not more so, than many of the Eastern or Western Spiritual traditions. The common threads between all of these traditions, including the African, continually astound us. The similarities are far more than the differences. The African is a person who is deeply connected to the earth and to a sense of place, not dissimilar to that of the Australian Aboriginal in many respects. In fact they even share many root words, including that of the Zulu and the Aboriginal word for whales – “Kuri.” “Dogoto”– is a Zulu word that means to heal without medicine and is used in reference to their small dome shaped healing buildings. Credo answered many questions and spoke in depth about the African spiritual traditions of creating sacred space and the energy of buildings. Like the Geomantic traditions of the West, Feng Shui and Vastu Shastra of India, not to mention most or all other ancient traditions, the African is concerned with sacred space and the manipulation of the environmental energies for spiritual and physical well being and healing. To that extent in Africa, a builder or building designer is considered to be very karmatically advanced and very close to God’s hand. They are considered to have no more than five reincarnations to go, all of which should be good reincarnations.
Credo told how a building shape is paramount to its vibrational energies, that shape sets up and contains the energy. The squared off and sharp edged rectangular building types of today are considered to be extremely negative. “Bloody murderous buildings, sending us mad” are Credo’s strong words. The African tradition, like Feng Shui, purports that sharp edges create a cutting energy or negative “Chi”, known in Feng Shui as Shen Chi or poison arrows. The African tradition says that all sharp corners to all surfaces should be rounded off. An adobe style may be quite an appropriate building style for today, with rounded internal corners to buildings and also the corners of doors and windows, a popular style in the 1970’s. Credo cited the building style types for civilisations such as Rome and Babylon as being very precisely sharp in form, edge and fenestration (window and door openings) square. He described these cultures as “bloody minded.” HEALING HUT PYRAMID We visited a Hut at Credo’s homestead that was still under construction but close to completion. It is a thatched Pyramid hut approx. 7meter x 7, supported by 15 round say 100-150 mm diameter wood poles all approx. the same size + one in the centre, collected from a special type of “LOCAL” tree. The poles are driven into the ground to support the hut, but more importantly to channel healing energies up from the earth, as Credo poetically put it, “to hear the voice of the earth.”
Healing Hut Pyramid A semi-humid environment within the hut is best to transmit this energy, like water conducts electricity, Credo speculates that once the great Egyptian pyramids were opened up they lost a lot of their power as they were dehydrated. The patient is placed in this hut for around half an hour, on a wooden mezzanine platform about 1500mm off the ground, covered with sand and dung. This platform is constructed of special wood 30mm thick sticks over which are laid animal skins. The patients head is pointed toward the North, although we understood that the direction may change depending on the illness. The Hut appeared to be aligned east west with the door to the east. Credo says that the native American Tepee’s have a similar effectiveness SHAPES • Beehive shaped buildings – power to heal from battles. Warlike mentality cultures – like Celts, African etc seem to have this shape huts. GET BACK TO CURVES Adobe construction, rounded corners internal and external windows are beneficial. “Man is sick and must be brought back to health via buildings.” We can heal with colour and shape. CEREMONY We asked Credo about the importance of ceremony and ritual. The essential message was that ritual and ceremony enrich our lives and help us to see the beauty of life. He shared our concerns that ritual needs to be reaffirmed. BIRTHING AND CONCEPTION When a baby is born in Africa any sharp or pointed objects are removed from the birthing place. Soft drumming and soft kind words traditionally accompanied the birth of the baby. The child was born into a spiral coil shaped weave of African sage. The child was thus greeted quietly with the smells and the love of the earth. Some Australian aboriginal birth practices are similar to this ritual, with women leaning up against an Acacia tree with Acacia branches lining a pit dug into the earth. Credo went on to tell us of the importance of not only birthing but also conceiving a child in a gentle quiet environment, again using gentle and kind words during conception. THE DIRECTIONS AND DOGOTO
Some tribes face their village north – the direction "from which we came.” Credo said that also in parts of Kenya, “on the equator mind you!” the villages face the sacred Mt Kenya. This is a similar tradition to that in Bali with Mt Besaki also on the equator. In both instances this is the mythical home of Gods. Maybe it has to do with the fact that the directions are less significant on the equator as the earth’s magnetic fields are neutral here.
• Painted circle & cross in white on floor – image of the sun, power – you may lie in this symbol for protection and healing
Credo describes colour as “something that moves things and does things to place & person.” |
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